In retail stores or in product distribution warehouses, freestanding products are often stocked and displayed on a plurality of open product shelves. These open product shelves are positioned by being mounted within a rack. Product shelf stockers must manually arrange, organize, and straighten rows of product on each product shelf in the shelf-mounting rack to cause the product to be readily displayed to the user. Known as “facing, fronting, or zoning,” this organizing process normally occurs during off-peak times and typically requires hours of manual sorting, organization, and placement of individual product on product shelves.
Freestanding products on open product shelves are unsightly and also present a problem for shoppers and product shelf stockers. This problem occurs when different types or brands of products become disorganized prior to facing by being pushed to the back portion of the product shelf. When the items on the front of the product shelf are removed from the product shelf by other shoppers or shelf stockers, the remaining items positioned towards the back portion of the product shelf are not easily viewable, nor accessible, by store shoppers and product shelf stockers. This lack of visibility and accessibility often results in both lost product and lost sales for the business.
Still other issues arise with moving and facing freestanding product items having different shapes and weights. Heavier items, such as a gallon wine jug or some cleaning products, may be too heavy for a shopper and product shelf stocker to move to the front of the product shelf. Smaller, lighter products, such as baby food and spice jars, or products with a high center of gravity, may also be difficult to slide forward from the back of the product shelf without causing unselected product to topple over. Softer products, such as bread, potato chips, and bags of cut salad greens, can easily be damaged during the facing process by product shelf stockers and by shoppers during the shopping process.
A number of prior art product shelf divider systems attempt to solve the problems associated with freestanding products positioned on product shelves. Some prior art product shelf divider systems use clear plastic dividers to separate different types of products; however, these prior art shelf divider systems have no mechanism for moving products on the rear of the product shelf to the front of the product shelf. Thus, products stacked towards the rear portion of the product shelf remain unseen by shoppers and product shelf stockers.
Yet other prior art product shelf divider systems include coil springs. The coil springs are sized and positioned to push products forward across the product shelf as the product nearest the front edge of the product shelf is removed. It has been found that many prior art coil springs fail when a product is too heavy to be pushed forward across a product shelf. Other systems disclosed in the prior art include the use of magnetic attraction and/or ribbon springs to move products forward to the front edge of the product shelf.
The prior art product shelf divider systems described above present significant drawbacks resulting in limited commercial use and user frustration. Accordingly, a need remains in the art for a product shelf divider system that will effectively separate, organize, and display products on a product shelf as well as easily move products from the back edge of the product shelf across the product shelf to the front edge of the product shelf. It is also important that the product shelf divider system conserve product shelf space by minimizing wasted shelf space between rows of products. Further, the needed product shelf divider system should facilitate quick assembly, easy installation, and rapid removal from a product shelf without the need for multiple tools and fasteners.